ProQuest puts AI deeper in the researcher’s journey for enriched insights and discovery

In February, ProQuest^™, part of Clarivate^™, launched a beta version of the AI-powered ProQuest Research Assistant in ProQuest One Literature, setting a new standard for the responsible use of AI as a research partner for students.

Now, ProQuest is expanding ProQuest Research Assistant with new AI-driven capabilities that power more effective and insightful interactions with full-text documents. Plus, it enriches search capabilities, so that even novice researchers can craft effective queries. The robust new features will become available beginning in September within the ProQuest One suite of products.

Patti Ginnis, Vice President, Product Management at Clarivate, said: “We’re working with our community of librarians and users to introduce AI in ways that solve real user problems; they address common trouble spots for researchers and students, delivering more targeted results and guiding them to the critical next steps and important insights.”

Read on to learn more about how ProQuest Research Assistant uses AI to:

• • Support engagement with documents
  • Help researchers and students craft targeted and effective searches

Supporting engagement with documents

ProQuest Research Assistant embeds AI features within full-text documents, supporting review, analysis and interrogation of these works. AI boosts research productivity by enabling quick evaluation of the relevance of full-text documents. As researchers of all levels interact with scholarly journals, trade publications, magazines, conference proceedings, dissertations, news articles, reviews and more, AI-driven recommendations offer customized insights. ProQuest Research Assistant instantly provides:

• • A key takeaway of the full text document allowing users to quickly determine relevance and then guide the next steps in their scholarly journey
  • Key concepts in the document – with an explanation of the term and why it’s relevant – which users can search in one click, propelling deeper research and investigation
  • Tailored recommendations that act as brainstorming partners, displaying further topics for students to explore and prompting students with a relevant, pre-defined Boolean search that can be activated in one click

Haley Lott, Collection Strategies Librarian at Roger Williams University, said, “For me the research questions are most helpful. And for students, they're probably going to think the key takeaway is most helpful. With them all working together, this is definitely something I would use in my classroom.”

Helping researchers craft targeted and effective searches

Many researchers, particularly students, struggle to create an effective search query that delivers targeted results. ProQuest Research Assistant uses AI to help these users automatically craft a structured Boolean search that eliminates noise and delivers a tighter, more relevant list of search results. This new AI-powered solution generates synonyms and related terms that can be added with a click.

Getting students to the finish line, on time, ready for the workplace

ProQuest Research Assistant is part of Clarivate’s larger initiative to improve student outcomes and address multiple learning styles. With a growing set of academic AI tools, Clarivate is leveraging its broad range of assets – curated content, learning and teaching workflow tools and mobile campus solutions – to connect students and faculty to trusted resources, make the learning experience more affordable and build greater classroom and campus engagement.

Adhering to rigorous academic principles

Clarivate AI initiatives for academia include Web of Science Research Assistant and Primo Research Assistant, which along with ProQuest Research Assistant, are being developed in partnership with our customer communities. They will continue to evolve and be shaped by both librarians and users, responsibly adapting and expanding with new capabilities over time, while adhering to rigorous academic principles.

Learn more about our approach to the responsible use of academic AI, watch a short video about the ProQuest Research Assistant and visit Clarivate at ALA in booth 1117 to see a demo.